


Yet Another Fear

by Clara_Parlato



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: M/M, Odd, Originally Posted on Tumblr, Weird
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-04
Updated: 2019-02-04
Packaged: 2019-10-21 23:53:24
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 911
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17652083
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Clara_Parlato/pseuds/Clara_Parlato
Summary: Keith isn’t afraid of many things.





	Yet Another Fear

**Author's Note:**

> Eh

Keith isn’t afraid of many things. After years having to do things himself, after learning that no one but himself deserved the trust it takes to let someone take care of you, he let go of most fears. His fear of spiders is gone. His fear of snakes is gone. His fear of adults? Some will tell you it never existed.

Keith really doesn’t have many fears.

But one fear he never was able, and he truly believes he’ll never be able, to let go is the fear of darkness.

He didn’t like darkness when he was a kid, and now he believes it evolved into something more than just the human fear of the unknown. Darkness is not just a hiding place for monsters, Darkness itself is the monster. Darkness, to Keith, is worse than any entity the human mind could conjure.

Than any entity any mind could conjure.

Any mind.

So what isn’t his surprise when he sees it in someone unexpected?

Keith, in his fear of Darkness, trained himself to look for it in everyone. Because Darkness isn’t just the shadow of something blocking the sun, or the hard to see state of the room when the lights are out. Darkness clings to people, Darkness enters them, and, in some cases, it dominates them, corroding their mind and soul until there is nothing left than an empty marionette controlled by Darkness.

He can see it all.

Shiro has it inside him.

Pidge has it inside her.

Allura and Coran do too.

Of course, in different intensities.

Hunk does too.

Hunk’s is very faint. Extremely faint. Almost not there nowadays, since his anxiety has been getting under control.

Lance.

Lance, though.

Lance, at first, didn’t. Or, at least, he didn’t look like he did. No. Not Lance.

Lance is made of light. Blinding. Warm. Light.

Light, light, no space for Darkness.

No matter what, everything Lance does, everything Lance feels, everything is Light. His homesickness? Light. His cocky nature? Light. His pettyness? Light.

By all accounts, it makes no goddamn sense because things like that should be considered dark. Everything should cast a shadow on Lance’s Light like the moon does to Earth in an eclipse. But they just make Lance shine more and it makes no goddamn sense.

And Keith hates what doesn’t make sense.

Everyone has Darkness in them.

Even if for just a fleeting moment.

Keith knows.

Keith feels his own Darkness.

Keith feels and hates and…

And he can almost hear it whispering on his ears words he most surely is afraid of hearing.

Everyone has Darkness.

Except for Lance.

And it is confusing.

And Keith hates it.

And Keith lets his own Darkness make him hate Lance.

Because Lance doesn’t make sense.

And Keith’s Darkness hates Lance’s Light.

It isn’t much later, when Shiro isn’t with them anymore, that Keith finally pushes his Darkness back and allows himself to bask in Lance’s Light.

And so he approaches the Light, certain it’ll burn him like a lamp burns a moth. Certain he’ll be another Ícarus, greedily trying to reach for the sun.

But what he finds in the very middle of the Light isn’t more Light.

It’s the more profound Darkness he’d ever seen.

And he’d seen Darkness so dark, hope was an inexistent thought for that soul.

Lance’s Darkness is terrifying.

But what makes it terrifying wasn’t how dense it was. What makes it terrifying is how much control Lance has over it.

Lance controls his Darkness as if it’s an arm or a leg. And it obeys him.

It obeys him.

Darkness doesn’t obey. Darkness does as it pleases. Darkness is something to be fought. Not something to be petted, to be groomed like a house cat. Not something to be fed.

But Lance’s does. Lance’s does.

And Keith, Keith who hated, Keith who liked, Keith who sees, Keith is terrified.

And goddamn glad Lance likes Voltron.

Because Lance is not someone Keith wants as an enemy.

But it still doesn’t make any sense. Lance has too much Light and too much Darkness and they coexist and they’re both part of him and they’re both true, but it makes no sense.

So Keith watches. Because that’s what Humanity does when it fears something.

It watches.

He watches as Light and Darkness swirl and dance around each other, how they come together and repel each other, how they fight and make peace, and how Lance maneuvers them like he’d been doing it his whole life and maybe he has, for what does Keith really knows of Lance? What any of them really knows of Lance?

You know what also doesn’t make sense?

How Keith’s fear turned so quickly in admiration, and how his rage turned into understanding. He can feel it, burning inside him.

He can feel it as he watches Lance control people. How skillfully he makes them believe and trust and act. How both his Light and his Darkness make no distinction of who they’re attaching strings too. How Lance too seems to be aware of the Darknes and Light of the others.

And Lance catches him staring. And bluest blue eyes smile at him, as he feels the strings attached to his soul and mind pull along Lance’s hand movements.

Lance’s fingers are covered in Light and Darkness strings.

And the Universe can do nothing but dance as they command.

As Lance commands.

And Keith lets go of yet another fear.


End file.
